I've mentioned Carlo Ginzburg here now and again. I think the guy is like what film people say about Marlon Brando... things were different after he showed up.
I've just found this lecture he gave last year in Brazil. If you've got 15 minutes, it's very much worth it. He talks of Google as a continuation of a tradition of marshalling information that dates from bible concordances in the middle ages. But he's also a Cassandra reminding us that "Without a question, Google is a lifeless machine."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSSHNqAbd7E&feature=related